East Meets West/Movie Summary
East Meets West Movie Summary The movie opens with fading clips being shown between the two locations, Eastwood High School and Westwood High School, where areas such as the gym, theater, cafeteria, and hallways are shown. The instrumental of the song "Go With Gravity" is heard in the background. Soon, the clips fade to a final location where we see a red alarm clock reading 7:00 go off. Rachel Gold is then woken up for her sleep in her decorative room. A happy Rachel smiles and as she gets out of bed, the music transitions to the instrumental of "Something About the Sunshine." We see Rachel brushing teeth, picking her school outfit, brushing her hair and then grabbing her load of books with a smile on her face. Rachel hops down the stairs with a major pep in her step and as she turns the corner, the logo East Meets West ''pans onto the screen in front of the staircase. Then Rachel is seen sliding into her living room and dancing around a bit before her mom calls her to come have breakfast. The background music stops and Rachel is seen in the kitchen with her parents eating cereal for breakfast and talking with them about her first day at Eastwood High School. We learn that Rachel and her family just moved to town and Rachel is going to be attending a new school, Eastwood. Rachel isn't at all nervous and is just excited to meet new people and increase her journalism skills. The school is heavily known for it's school spirit so Rachel also thinks it'd be nice to try something new. Soon, on the kitchen TV, the news reporters begin to talk about a national junior choir competition for young children that's taking place in the town later that evening. Rachel quickly turns away from the TV when this comes on. Rachel's mom comes over to her and says, "Remember back when that was you." Immediately Rachel frowns with a sigh. Rachel's dad says, "You could've brought your choir to victory. You have such a beautiful voice." Rachel's frown gets harder, turning into an irritated expression, and she looks up at her parents. "Had a beautiful voice, dad. I'm not a singer," she says, "Singing is...it's not practical. Journalism, it is, and you both know that's my calling." Mr. and Mrs. Gold try to argue with her but she protests holding up her composition notebook saying, "This, this will get me into a school like Yale or Harvard or Princeton, with a scholarship even. Choir? Choir won't. And you both know you'll be saying the same when you take a look at that tuition." Rachel's parents laugh a bit and then the three drop the conversation and they continue to talk about Eastwood. In the next scene, Rachel is saying goodbye to her mom who dropped her off at school and she excitedly walks into school. The camera soon switches over to the school hallway which is filled with kids. Suddenly, everyone's heads turn when a group of girls all dressed in red and white uniforms come down the hall: the cheerleaders. Leading the group is an extra fiesty looking head cheerleader with a sassy attitude, Skylar. Skylar is talking to the cheerleaders while she walks about the first football game that night and how everything has to be perfect. But, with their one cheer member, Bianca, off the squad after a major injury, they have to hold mandatory tryouts during school after lunch. The cheerleaders are soon met by a jock, Jess, and his group of friends from the football team, all wearing white and red. Their school mascot is an Eagle so they call themselves the Eastwood Eagles. Rachel walks into the school but doesn't notice anything going on because her eyes are fixated looking down on her schedule. Skylar gives Jess a long kiss on the lips but it's interrupted when Rachel bumps into them accidentally. She apologizes and continues on her way, Skylar giving her a nasty looks as she walks away. The group of jocks and cheerleaders begins to talk about Westwood High, their rival high school, and talk as though they are sure they'll beat them this year. They soon mention the name Ricky Francis, Westwood's star player, and they talk about how he's probably quivering at that moment, scared about the start of the season. The scene soon switches over to Westwood High where we see a cool and confident guy dressed in blue and white walk down the hallway. The guys revealed to be Ricky Francis and he is accompanied by his football teammates including his best friend Jason. One girl walks with them as well, Deena, who is the athletic department's student manager. The group talks about the upcoming football season and how they are prepared to slay the season. The group is soon joined by a group of cheerleaders dressed in blue, white, and yellow. The irschool mascot is a Warrior so they call themselves the Westwood Warriors. We learn that Ricky suffered a serious leg injury last season during a football game, an injury that was caused by an Eastwood football player. The player had absolutely no mercy for Ricky and obviously meant to hurt him. Because of the injury, Ricky could not attend a major football camp that winter where admission is only by selection, something that could have been a big oppurtunity for Ricky. For this, Ricky absolutely hates Eastwood and is more than determined to take them down. The scene soon switches back to the Eastwood Eagles and then back to the Westwood Warriors, and then back and forth, two parelell events occuring at the same time. Soon, the two groups begin to sing about the start of a new season and how excited they are to win. Meanwhile, Rachel has stopped searching for her locker and is watching the high level of school spirit around her ("'Something About the Sunshine'"). The first bell rings. Rachel watches the cheerleaders and jocks walk away, obviously the popular kids of the school. She turns around to go to her first class, AP English. She sits down in class and next to her sits a cheerful girl in a cheerleading uniform. Rachel smiles at the girl and introduces herself, telling her her name and that she's new. The girl completely ignores her and then Rachel rolls her eyes, mumbling to herself that she should have saw it coming from a cheerleader. But then the girl turns her head to her, smiling apologetically, and says, "Oh you were talking to me? I'm so sorry, you see I've been writing this story about a new girl in school and I know her so well that I'm starting to hear her in my head." Rachel smiles at the girl, a bit surprised, and says, "Knowing the character in and out is one of the most vital aspects of writing, I applaud you!" The girl introduces herself as Allie. She tells her that she is a cheerleader and not to worry, she's only wearing the uniform because it's tradition to wear the uniform on game days. Allie explains herself to be a girl who loves writing and has so much energy that cheerleading has basically calling her name. Allie explains to Rachel how the school is practically centered around the sports at school and that's all anyone cares about. But in her opinion, there needs to be more focus on the academics, particulary writing. Rachel tells Allie how she wants to try something new and asks her if she can reccomend anything. Allie excitedly tells Rachel about the cheerleading tryouts for a replacement and tells her they're really desparate. Rachel is at first reluctant but thinks it'd be fun so she tells Allie she'll think about it, she just doesn't really want to miss class time on the first day. Ricky is seen talking with his buddies and while talking, the drama teacher Ms. Bailey is walking down the hall, reminding everyone that auditions for the school musical are the next week. Ms. Bailey tells the boys they should audition but the boys laugh and tell her football is their priority. Then Ricky walks into his Spanish class where his Spanish teacher greets him with a sarcastically happy hello. She tells him he is falling behind in class and needs to bring his grade up or else his spot on the football team with be in jeopardy. The scene soon switches to Rachel who seems to be having a good first day, she is meeting new people and is loving it. Soon it is lunchtime and she is eating with a group of people she met in her last class. While eating, she realizes the cheerleading tryouts are next. Allie comes up to her and asks her if she's coming. Rachel thinks for a bit and decides to just go for it. When Allie hears her answer, she excitedly pulls Rachel away and tells her she has "the cutest red sweats for her." Rachel is soon in bright red and white sweats, her hair in a ponytail, and walking into the gym. She sees Skylar and recognizes her as the girl she bumped into earlier. She walks up to her to apologize. Skylar smiles at Rachel and says "accidents happen, honey, just, watch yourself more, kay?" Rachel smiles and turns around. Then Skylar places herself in the middle of the gym tells all of the girls tryouting out to file out in front of her and all of the cheerleaders to go in back of her. She tells the cheerleaders she will teach them a simple dance, they will practice a few times, and then they will be judged. Music begins to play and Skylar begins to sing and dance, however, the dance is not at all easy. All of the girls struggle to keep up. ("'Beat of My Drum'"). Rachel at first has some trouble but she soon gets the hang of it. By the end of the song, when the cheerleaders are jugding the girls, Rachel is the one that stands out out of all of the girls. She can keep up and dance pretty well. Skylar, however, doesn't notice until the very end as she was wrapped up in taunting the other girls. When Skylar sees Rachel, she's instantly jealous. After the music stops, Rachel releases a sigh of relief and smiles. Everyone is quiet for a bit. Skylar rolls her eyes and then says "Time for tricks, get in a line and show us what you got." The scene then switches over to Ricky and Jason after school at football practice. The two are stretching. Jason asks Ricky what he plans to do about Spanish. Ricky says he'll just try harder but Jason explains to him he needs to take it more seriously if football is important to him. Then Ricky gets the team in a group and speaks to them. Their first game is tonight and they can't slip up. Rickly gets the team pumped up and tells they so spread out for warm ups. Ricky, Jason, and the team get themselves pumped up while doing vigorous warm ups ("'Push it to the Limit'''"). After practice is over, Ricky goes to the locker room to take to his Spanish books while the team goes out for some food to eat before they have to return for the game. Ricky sits in the locker room looking over Spanish, obviously annoyed. After reading a few words of a sentence, he punches th e locker beside him out of anger. "I hate learning Spanish," he mutters to himself. He then begins to pace around the locker room saying Spanish words to himself and their meaning over and over until it's in his brain. To have some fun with it, he then begins to sing the words over and over. Unbeknowest to most people in his life, Ricky has a really nice voice. Ricky begins belting the words as he has more fun with it and sings at the top of his lungs. But all of a sudden, he jumps when he hears Ms. Bailey say his name. He asks her why she's in the boys locker room and she tells him his voice attracted her. She asks him to come audition for the musical the next week but Ricky immediately says no, telling her he needs to focus on football and that he's already faling behind in Spanish. Plus, he has no interest in tapping across a stage. Ms. Bailey, offended by his comment, leaves the locker room and tells him he can come talk to her when he's come to his senses. Ricky laughs and goes back to his book. Category:East Meets West Category:Summaries